Storage battery



N5L 27 T923 1,475,503

S. M. MEYER ET AL STORAGE BATTERY Filed Oct. 27 1921 Z ,Z ya.

atented Nov. 27, 1923.

'tica'tion' y *Qur present invent on relates to the conbly of negative Fig. 3 is ITE wTo tzll' 'wlzom it may concern:

Be, it known that 'we, Svnxn' M. MEYER citizens of the United and'tus'ful Improvements in Storage Batteries ,'o fwhich the. following s :1V specil'j' l stlllc tlon o'f'astorage battery cell and more particularly to the structure .of the nega tive electrode. The object of our inventlon is te produce a cell that will have a long lite: and will withstand heavy withdrawals of current without injury to the electrodes.

LO'gaccoinplishthis object we use a solid sheet metal negative electrode of a particular composition and" a suitable composite.

We dispensewith the usual insulating separators.

paste positive electrode.

In order that our invention may be fully understood, it willfirst be described in connection. with the accompanying drawings and .afterwards more particularly pointed I nected to'the terminals 2 of the negative example, rivetingits ends out in the annexed claims.

' In said drawings:-

. Fig. l is a perspective view of an assemtwopositive electrodes and three electrodesembodying our invention. the cell or container being omitted.

Fig. 2 is aperspective view-of the container in which the electrodes are to' be mounted.

an elevationof the negative electrode.

Fig. 4 is asectional view of the negative. electrode taken on. the line H of Fig. 3.

Fig.5 is a plun'view of three negative electrodes connected for-use in a st orage batter cell. 7 1

gimilar numerals refer to similar parts throughout.- tihe .views. I

One of na -min features of our storage battery is the negative electrode. made in'the form of a rectangular sheet metal plate shown at 1, Fig. 3, having on one corner an extensi'on'2' to act as a terminaLforelectrica-l connection. The compositionof the negative electrode is very important in the action ofour storage battery cell. We have found veryefi'cctive a plate made ofan alloy of the following ingrediontscombincd in approximately the propor- Application filedfictober 27, 1921.

may be made in the very strong any suitable means, 4 lts upper end and folding the lower and This is Y sronnon BATTERY.

Serial 110.510,.958.

25-11- lead, 17% This alloy is the subject matter of our co-pending applica tion, Serial No. 479,801, filed June 9.3. 1921.. To producethe. best results in batteries used for different purposes slight mmlificationstions given, vim- 50% tin. zinc and 53% ant1mony.

percentages o'f the const tuents of the alloy. vAs this material is made thin and we prefer mime it: about thick. For certa n uses ofbattcries we employ a soft lead strip 3 running diagonally across the electrode'frtmrthe terminal 2 to the opposite lower.

corner.- Strip 3 is fastened in electrical contact to the plate '1 over the bottom of the plate 1.

To make up a complete of our negative electrodes are connected as in Fig. 5 where three are shown at 4, 5 and 6. It is to be observed that lead strips 3 are on the inside surface only of electrodes 4 and 6 ancl'on both faces of electrode 5. Connector 7 is of lead and is electrically conelectrodes by, for to electrodes 4 and 6 and fastening it at its centre to electrode 5 by a' tightfitting tongue and groove. Post 8 is provided on connector 7 for the purpose of leading current team} I from the cell. a

Two suitable positive electrodes'consisting essentially of a paste of active material of some lead compoundheld in place by a metallic frame such for example as described in our co-pending application. Serial No. 511,395 are mounted as shown in F ig. -1 at. 9 and 10. They are. properly spaced by the connector 11 so that their'centrc distances correspond with the centre distances of the negative electrodes. We prefer to have a space of about & -"'in the clear between a positive and negative electrode. Post 12 is provided'on connect-orll' for' electrical connection to thepositiveelectrodes of the cell. The negative and positive electrodes are assembled in a suitable container 13, Fig. 2, of hard-rubber rial. Groovesare formed on the interior of the container both ends of as shown at 14. to serve as-spacers to maintain the electrodes in proper relation to each other. After the cell is assembled it is iillcd with sulphuric acid of a suitable specific gravity.

and stiff the plate 1. may be e such as rivetmg at.

cell a plurality orother insulating mate- The action of our alloy negative electrode under heavy demands of current is to build 11 an electrical resistance at its surface. T is is due to the formation of'a coating, probably of an oxide of one of its constituents. Therefore, on short circuit, our cell is automatically protected against damage due to excessive discharge current. On opening the shor circuit, the coating rapidly disappears and the'voltage of the cellreturns to normal. \Ve have found that it is not necessary to use the commonly employed insulating separators between our positive and negative electrodes because there is no objectionable buckling of the positive electrodes in our improved battery; consequently the resistance of our cell is low and we can use sulpluiric acid of an unusually low specific gravity. \Ve have found that our alloy negative is unaffected during a long period of time if the specific gravity of the acid in the cell does not rise above 1.250 and we prefer to have the gravity of the acid about 1.220 when the cell is fully charged.

In certain conditions of storage battery -.joperation a high rate of charging is necessary. We have found that the lead strip a relatively small area compared to the whole electrode and may be of a-nyshape that will present about the same surfacev to the electrolyte .,-.in a distributed manner. \Vhen used, strips 3 need be'provided only on those faces of the negative electrodes presented to positive electrodes.

. We claim 1. A storage battery comprising a positive electrode having active material of lead oxide and a negative electrode consisting of an alloy of tin, lead, zinc and antimony, having a preponderance of tin, whereby a high resistance is built up on the surface of the said negative electrode by the formation of metallic oxide'upon the passage of the heavy current.

2. A stora e batter described in claim.

1, characterized by the fact that the alloy consists of approximately 50% tin, 25%

- lead, 17% zinc and 8% antimon y SVEND M. MEYER. \VILLIAM JAMES. 

